'Abuse' or divine decree? Though most favor continuing the ancient rite, a growing number hope to see it abandoned.

"Thus shall my covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlastingpact," God tells Abraham in Genesis 17. "And if any male who isuncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that personshall be cut off from his kin; he was broken my covenant."

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But increasingly in Reform Judaism, families are questioning thehistoric ritual of circumcision, asking their rabbis if there is a wayout. The physical mark of God's covenant, some say, is cruel andunnecessary.